Soapweed
Well-known member
My journal entry for Saturday, January 20, 1968
6:00 was my official "getting up time" again this morning. I dressed, rang the bell for Lloyd, and started in on a good breakfast.
I filled the four-wheeler with gas and then put on the required amount of cake. Dad gave me feeding instructions for the day, and then I hooked on the sled and took it over to a small jag of hay in the lot south of the barn. After getting the bed of the sled tilted and arranged "just so," I pushed the load on with the scoop of the loader.
Lloyd was done graining the calves by then, so we started pitching off hay in the calf pasture. The hay came off good, and we were soon shedding clothes. (The weather was good all day and the stars are shining tonight, so it will probably be nice tomorrow, also.)
We came out just right on hay for the close bunches, so I headed the tractor and sled northward. The hill behind the barn is still just a little rough on the upgrade, but by gearing down considerably, we made it over the top. When we arrived at the north meadow, Dad was already there with the pickup. He directed us to a rough stack in the north yard. Two-thirds of this stack was loaded on and fed off in jig time to the main bunch of cows in the middle pasture.
Lloyd and I came around by the branding corral and "high telephone pole," [so named because that was the only place where we could get under the phone line with the beaver-slide stacker]. Our orders were to load on a half-stack, feed the coming-two-year-old heifers, and bring the rest of the hay home for using tomorrow. We had a lot of trouble pulling up to the desired stack due to an immense amount of snow around it. Loading the half stack turned out to be a "slaughter job," as it split into about five different pieces. The load was finally on, looking like a porcupine that had been hit by an atomic bomb. We took off for the heifer bunch in the east side of the meadow, but had to stop a couple times to rebalance the load a little better. Finally the heifers were fed, and I pointed the outfit homeward with the remaining hay staying put fairly well.
Dad purchased a new pickup today. It's a Ford ¾ ton 2wd, and it's a fairly fancy outfit. Some of its assets include: a tool box under the regular box, a cargo light, a radio which isn't in yet, back-up lights, a light inside that comes on when the doors are opened, a big mirror on each side, and a "souped-up" motor (which I know nothing about). The color is a nice shade of green, and it has 8 ply tires all the way around. The pickup looks like a good outfit. I think I'll try and keep it that way by not driving it.
The guy that brought this pickup (from Wahlstrom Ford in Chadron) got here about 11:40 a.m., just in time for dinner. We gave it a good test run before dinner and then came in to eat. Dad had to take this guy back to town, where a wrecker was waiting to take the pickup I wrecked to Chadron. Both men went back in the wrecker.
This afternoon, Lloyd and I sanded the saddle room. At 4:00 Dad got home from town, where he had salvaged the old stock rack and a few other things off the white pickup. He brought a bucket of varnish home with him.
The rest of the outfit went to Rushville at 4:30 to see Uncle Roland Fairhead, who is in the hospital. Lloyd and I stayed home to resume work in the saddle room. We finished sanding, and then I tackled the job of varnishing the ceiling while Lloyd did chores. Ah, pain in the neck. It was such a beastly bore it tired me all out. Well, anyway, it took about an hour to paint the ceiling. My neck was stiff from looking up before I had one square foot done. Varnish from the brush dripped down the handle and made my hand quite sticky.
Lloyd reported his duties done at about 5:45, so he took off for Valentine. It took me another 45 minutes to finish varnishing the ceiling.
I went up to the house and rustled up some grub. Weiner sandwiches and a glass of chocolate milk made up the menu, but it went down pretty good, if I do say so myself. I rubbed for quite a while, but the varnish just wouldn't come off my hand.
I was sleepy, so lay down on the davenport about 7:00. The phone rang at 10:00 and woke me up. It was Grandma calling to find out if the folks were home. I sleepily carried on an unintelligent conversation for a while, and then started writing this. Everyone got home at about 11:00.
6:00 was my official "getting up time" again this morning. I dressed, rang the bell for Lloyd, and started in on a good breakfast.
I filled the four-wheeler with gas and then put on the required amount of cake. Dad gave me feeding instructions for the day, and then I hooked on the sled and took it over to a small jag of hay in the lot south of the barn. After getting the bed of the sled tilted and arranged "just so," I pushed the load on with the scoop of the loader.
Lloyd was done graining the calves by then, so we started pitching off hay in the calf pasture. The hay came off good, and we were soon shedding clothes. (The weather was good all day and the stars are shining tonight, so it will probably be nice tomorrow, also.)
We came out just right on hay for the close bunches, so I headed the tractor and sled northward. The hill behind the barn is still just a little rough on the upgrade, but by gearing down considerably, we made it over the top. When we arrived at the north meadow, Dad was already there with the pickup. He directed us to a rough stack in the north yard. Two-thirds of this stack was loaded on and fed off in jig time to the main bunch of cows in the middle pasture.
Lloyd and I came around by the branding corral and "high telephone pole," [so named because that was the only place where we could get under the phone line with the beaver-slide stacker]. Our orders were to load on a half-stack, feed the coming-two-year-old heifers, and bring the rest of the hay home for using tomorrow. We had a lot of trouble pulling up to the desired stack due to an immense amount of snow around it. Loading the half stack turned out to be a "slaughter job," as it split into about five different pieces. The load was finally on, looking like a porcupine that had been hit by an atomic bomb. We took off for the heifer bunch in the east side of the meadow, but had to stop a couple times to rebalance the load a little better. Finally the heifers were fed, and I pointed the outfit homeward with the remaining hay staying put fairly well.
Dad purchased a new pickup today. It's a Ford ¾ ton 2wd, and it's a fairly fancy outfit. Some of its assets include: a tool box under the regular box, a cargo light, a radio which isn't in yet, back-up lights, a light inside that comes on when the doors are opened, a big mirror on each side, and a "souped-up" motor (which I know nothing about). The color is a nice shade of green, and it has 8 ply tires all the way around. The pickup looks like a good outfit. I think I'll try and keep it that way by not driving it.
The guy that brought this pickup (from Wahlstrom Ford in Chadron) got here about 11:40 a.m., just in time for dinner. We gave it a good test run before dinner and then came in to eat. Dad had to take this guy back to town, where a wrecker was waiting to take the pickup I wrecked to Chadron. Both men went back in the wrecker.
This afternoon, Lloyd and I sanded the saddle room. At 4:00 Dad got home from town, where he had salvaged the old stock rack and a few other things off the white pickup. He brought a bucket of varnish home with him.
The rest of the outfit went to Rushville at 4:30 to see Uncle Roland Fairhead, who is in the hospital. Lloyd and I stayed home to resume work in the saddle room. We finished sanding, and then I tackled the job of varnishing the ceiling while Lloyd did chores. Ah, pain in the neck. It was such a beastly bore it tired me all out. Well, anyway, it took about an hour to paint the ceiling. My neck was stiff from looking up before I had one square foot done. Varnish from the brush dripped down the handle and made my hand quite sticky.
Lloyd reported his duties done at about 5:45, so he took off for Valentine. It took me another 45 minutes to finish varnishing the ceiling.
I went up to the house and rustled up some grub. Weiner sandwiches and a glass of chocolate milk made up the menu, but it went down pretty good, if I do say so myself. I rubbed for quite a while, but the varnish just wouldn't come off my hand.
I was sleepy, so lay down on the davenport about 7:00. The phone rang at 10:00 and woke me up. It was Grandma calling to find out if the folks were home. I sleepily carried on an unintelligent conversation for a while, and then started writing this. Everyone got home at about 11:00.